The Showroom

Finding the (right) tunnel and light, Part II

I never realised that you needed the *right* tunnel to take a tunnel shot. We biked quite a few mile before we found the right tunnel. They were too narrow or too wide, too light or to dark...Not the right shape, too dirty etc. We finally found one that did it. Not perfect but best of the bunch. Got the kid to dance for me, well that required some bribing. No way Nathan would dance, as that was - as he put it - too girly.

I won't go into my metering nightmares. I wanted some kind of blown light but not entirely to avoid the "death" tunnel idea, silhouettes with some details (not entirely black), leading lines to the light. Finally, I also wanted the inside of the tunnel to show some details. I did photoshop!!!!LOL.

The second shot is one I took when the sun broke behind the clouds and reflected on the glass houses...

The kids will sleep well, we did cycle A LOT!

Never mind the fact that Nathan getting a sudden hitch on his nose took an abrupt stop on the middle of the road, leaving Maxim no time to stop, thus crashing against his brother, going over his bike and landing waist down to his feet in the canal, and his face in the brand netels (sorry surely I spelled that wrong - Dutch - but I don't even know how you call this in English: plants that stings and leaves you with some burning spots for about 15mns). Boys!!!!!

 

One of these weekends..

Where DH is away most of it and the kids must be dispatched here and there. I'm trying to still go to my running meet up like every Saturday morning but can't find a sitter. So finally let her at a friend where she has a wonderful time....Then hearing that DH won't be back today so will need to cancel a session tomorrow...So it's chaotic and not yet finished. I think I'll be happy Monday comes, and I hate saying that, when everyone returns to some routine. I feel for people that must work at weekends. I just love the family times weekends give you.

So to tame the boys and give everyone some fresh air, braving the Dutch weather, we went on a bike tour and played in a tunnel. It did not turn out the way I envisaged it but at least taught me a few tricks for my next attempt tomorrow re metering etc...

Nothing major but thought I'd share....Hopefully I will get better at these...LOL

#1 probably the better one...

#2 Little girl dancing in the light

#3 All kids dancing. THey thought it was very funny....This is a cycle lane only by the way!

Scary little monster...

and an update on the course....

There is a little game going on at my house where Manouk is a monster (or a lion..or a tiger, depending on the day) and must be chasing her 2 big brothers. The game was obviously thought of by te boys...Now she really believes in it and we all have to play and pretend that she's scaring us to death..without laughing...

She can be a little monster at time...for sure..like when she does not want to pose for me although I have the perfect room..empty..because of floor refurbishment. Here's my scary little monster..

And the bribe did not help...

Tuesday was my firt day for my photography study. I left overwhelmed. I guessed I never imagined that it would be so intensive. This is just so far away from my day-to-day photography (portraits) that I'm guaranteed to be stretchhhhhhhhhhhhhhed to the limit...And more. I came home, slightly stressed!LOL. So many assignments on a weekly basis, plus those standard assignments that weigh even more in the grades balance. It will take some adjustment being back at school.

Someone asked me whether there are any good-looking young guys. Well NOT! The age average is actually quite high. We're all going through our mid-life crisis, it seems. And would also seem that more women are prone to this crisis than men (I always thought the opposite!).

My first assignment for coming Tuesday is: Theme "Light". Anybody wants to throw ideas at me, be more than welcome! I find this one VERY difficult, so no really looking fwd to the rest.

I think it will be ok but far more demanding than I thought. The study days are really meant to discuss your work/assigments rather than learning techniques etc. That, you can do it all in your own time..Hmmm.

Does not help that I'm in a total funk and have not touched my camera in so many days except for those Manouk's pictures above...

Will show you my attempt #1 tomorrow! I have 3 ideas in mind..Nothing mind-blowing though...

Oh and saw this on Jeanine's blog so did it too (such a follower!!!):

Your Birthdate: July 30

You have the type of personality that people either love or hate. You're opinionated, dramatic, intense, and very outspoken. And some people can't get enough of you - they're totally addicted. Others, well, they wish you were a little more reserved. Your strength: Your flair Your weakness: If you think it, you say it Your power color: Scarlet red Your power symbol: Inverted triangle Your power month: March

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

There is definitely some thruth in this but won't tell you what!!!

And for my adorable sister Joelle, who does not have a blog so will show it here for her!!!lol

Your Birthdate: May 7

You are an island. You don't need anyone else to make you happy. And though you see yourself as a loner, people are drawn to you. Deep and sensitive, you tend to impress others with your insights. You also tend to be psychic - so listen to that inner voice! Your strength: Your self sufficiency Your weakness: You despise authority Your power color: Maroon Your power symbol: Hammer Your power month: July

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

Off to Paris...

for the weekend and I cannot wait....My mother celebrated her 70th birthday in August so my sister and I decided to treat her with a girls only w/e in Paris filled with shopping, good food, a nice outing on Saturday night and just some relaxing time. This is really the first time we will be together without kids, and as much as we love our kids, we are all REALLY looking forward to it *grin*.

Now back to the 10th of September. This was a big day for me as back in April I applied to the FotoAcademie here in Rotterdam. A 3 year program. I gathered that as I was going to stop working, I should really occupy myself at least a day a week. I had been toying with the idea for a while already but unfortunately this study does not combine very well with a IT project job where I was on call every of my free days. So I did applied. One reason it took me so long was the idea of being back at "school" with people half my age. Obviously it has a "refreshing" side to it for someone considered by all my boys' friends to be coming close to a fossil...BUT, well , you know what I mean. Some would have been half my age, and the lifestyle, although know to me, is somewhat different. BUT, I gathered the jury panel reviewing my application would let me know if really I was THAT old.

Heck, I was invited for a entry examination. 3 parts to it:

But first let me preface this. I was there at 15:00 in a really new cool building with absolutely AMAZING pictures hanging on the walls. I sat down and suddenly just felt like running away. I did NOT belong here. My portfolio that seemed so good till that point, suddenly, looked like the work of a beginner...My palms started sweating. He called my name. Shoosh, did not have time to escape....

1) "Show a mixed portfolio of your work". What's a mix of portraits, lol? This is what I do, portraits....What else could I show? Stressed about this, I spent my whole summer taking pictures of about just anything that could be good enough for non portrait work. To see the portfolio, go there. The guy went through the images without saying a word. At the end, he asked me to select 3 of them and to explain why I did. There, I had 2 choices: select those technically the best, or choose 3 that truely meant something to me...I went for the second option. It was hard narrowing 3 only.

At the end of this, he said I was very much welcome. So far so good. But then.

2) Technical test. I BOMBED this. Big time. First the questions were in Dutch. Well I do speak it but not really the photographic jargon...Also you know when you're learnt it all yourself online, and at home with te well known trial and error method? You just can do it but cannot really explain all the little technicalities. For example, I know some F-stops. But my 5D has so many extra ones, and that really I could not tell you which ones are the real ones and which ones ae the extra ones!lol. SO I bombed that one.

3) PCS2 test. Well it was a close call, which is a shame because I *do* know PCS2. But in English and on a windows system!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Not in Dutch and on a mac!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So I was really having a hard time finding my way around, all my short cut keys were obviously not working... Grrrrrrrrrrr. The test was about editing some pictures 1) one with a SERIOUS color cast (without using auto color, BUT I did use auto color to find out what the colours were that I was aimning for...Because this picture had a serious color cast..ANd I could not even make out what it was..LOL) 2) Clone out this and that 3) Convert to b&w 4) Sharpen without using Smart Sharpen (well why not really. I LOVE SS!!) 5) Change the color of this 6) Brigten and ighten that etc etc. Think I did ok. BUT honnestly why doesn't ADOBE only sell English software..  really don't understand this.....

So we start Monday, and I'll be there because, so far, I have not heard anything that would make me stay home....I'm really excited.. I am not sure whether that will lead me but I think that will be such a great experience anyway. And to be honnest, I'm so ready for someone to tell me that my work could seriously improve! YKWIM?

So that was that....

It's been quite busy here since school started. We're in the midle of refurbishing, nothing drastic, purely cosmetic but I always seem to underestimate the "real" time that everything takes. We had the floor redone in the living room + our bedroom, so everything had to be moved out....Took the WHOLE friggin' w/e. I did nothing else. I was exhausted and by Sunday night when I undressed to go to bed, I realised my body was one big bruise after carrying all these furnitures around....

Anyway a little funny story (if you're not alseep by now)...We put one of our sofa on Marktplaats (a Dutch Ebay): free to be picked up by Sunday night. Well within 1 hour, I had 10 people calling. All asking the same thing: how old, how big, what color and how many stains.....I did put a picture on the site and detailed information. Can people read these days????? Also, how old, stains? Well people it's for free!!! Do you think I'd put my brand new sofa for free on this site..The sofa was actually in a very good condition (due to my cleaning habit..my ocd side). Finally I got a cal from a student. She came and picked it up, thanked me profusely and even sent me a mail asking for my bank account nr so that she could transfer some money. To this I just replied that I was more than happy to help a student. So it all ended on a nice note but honestly some reactions just floored me.

So we are now waiting for the floors to dry before we can just all go back to our respective bedrooms and bathrooms....I hate camping, even in my own house!

As some of you know, Nathan's favorite book is the human body encyclopedia (it's actually turning into Manouk's fav book too). So 3 nights ago, both were looking at the page that's showing a couple of sperms swimming to an ovule (sorry I'm quite limited in this area in my English vocabulary, so apologies for the mis-spelling).

Nathan (talking to Manouk): Look! Some tadpoles!

Manouk: Ja! Tadpoles!

So I jumped in and explained very briefly what both were

Then Nathan looked at his sister very seriously and said: Yes, see and papa puts his belly against mama's belly and pssschit (his expression) a baby jumps in mama's belly!!

Very satisfied, he went on with his book. And Maxim who was playing next to him, nodded totally agreeing with the whole thing..... See, here, we don't have bees, we have tadpoles.

Now, I will again drip feed you with some vacation pictures.  I think I should be done soon! lol. I really need to cut down...

Reworked:

My camera is back! In time for my family session, which was.... A challenge...But fun!

Have a great w/e everyone.

No words...

2 pictures!!!

How come that since I stopped working, I have even less time than before to update my blog...Ok maybe I thought I would not bore you anymore with vacation pictures..

Manouk and I are spending a lot of time together. And to be honest, living the days at her own little tempo is exactly what  I needed. I just cannot believe it, but I do not miss work....At all... Ok I do not call anybody from there either ,in case I start having remorse...

So it's all about Manouk and I for now and we are having a great time. She's becoming such a little lady, and is an incredible organiser. She tells me when she wants to go for a walk, when she needs to have lunch served. LOL. I just oblige....

I promise I will post very soon. Just very busy with some home refurbishing things right now...

Sorry I just have to post a few more from the vacation..

       

Tagged..Again...

My very good photography friend Laureen tagged me to list another 8 things about me....

1) I need at least 8 hours sleep. Unfortunately....I wish I'd do ok with with 6/7 but no, I really need 8 to be able to function properly...

2) I drink 2 cups of coffee a day. One at breakfast and another after lunch. The morning one must be prepared by myself. It has to be perfect, taste perfect etc. Even DH after 13 years married cannot get it right!!!LOL

3) The first time I met DH in Jan 1992, he told me Chamonix Mt-Blanc was not a good place to ski. I was basically raised there so just this comment did not go very well with me..The second time I met him at a party in Feb 1992, I knew I would marry him soner or later...

4) I must sleep with the window open and the door open

5) Besides being a ski freak, I'm an ironig freak. Everything, I repeat..everything must be ironed. All my friends think I'm mad. But I just can't put away something that has not been ironed.

6) My 3 kids are twisting their feet the way I do. See below, only the boys are doing it on this picture but Manouk does too.

7) My favorite food are Italian and Asian. I also LOVE crabs.

8) May favorite day cream is: Nuxe, creme fraiche. Cannot do without it. The smell just reminds me of my childhood (just don't know why).

The weekend was fun. I joined a running group to train for the 10K and it was fun. Even for someone who has nor run for EVER....I made it ok though the first training.

And a few pictures to make this post complete. Still editing...

No news from my camera...No news, good news....

Oh and tomorrow is a BIG day for me, so just fingers crossed everyone!

          

 

So I did some editing....

I'm using my DH's Dell Laptop. With a big screen, what a difference from my work HP laptop (tiny screen). What a pleasure to be able to see what I'm editing. Add to that the CS3 layout and I had some fun...I needed it after leaving my 5D behind this morning at the shop. I could see a slight look of misunderstanding in Manouk's eyes when we walked away and my camera was being put in a bag and stored in a drawer...lol.

On a positive note, I am quite enjoying being home. Ok, it's only week 1 so nothing to get too excited about but things run just so smoothly, no stress, everything on his own time...I need to get used to having to talk to all the the other mothers after school though, I used to be the "stranger" that was always rushing. Well now the only thing I need to hurry back to is a good cup of coffee, the newspaper (finally have time to read it all) and some play with Manouk. A kind of holiday feeling. Shame the weather sucks. No sun so no flare. But wait! No camera, so no flare. I guess it's time to get the good old rebel out again. Twice in 6 months, he won't believe his luck..

A few pictures I edited today....Please please can you tell me if colors are out or anything else. This laptop is not calibrated.

Baywatch..lol..(where's the tower? And the guard?)

Only another 500 to go..lol..       

Stripped?

Feeling even more so today..Stripped from everything and sick..

To make a long story short, Monday was a bad day. I guess I was in denial till now, as I only told DH this morning about what happened. I just felt too sick just thinking about it.

My camera bag  - open - fell on the floor Monday afternoon. SOmebody helped it fal but it was an accident. THe bag should not have been there to start with.

One cheap and old lens crashed: total loss. No biggie.

My camera (body only) fell: not working anymore. BIGGIE.

I brought it to the shop today where I had bought it. They will send it to Canon. No idea of how long this will all take. But worst of all: n diagnostic, no prognostic. I feel sick...

Denial stopped today when after many attempts at switching power on, nothing happened and I had to cancel 2 sessions. Feel sick again.

Now, in the bigger scheme of things, worse things can happen, I know. So let take this time off to spend it editing the huge back up I have on my vacation pictures (CS3 is installed and it loks so much better than CS2 alrady. lol).

So lesson to be learnt:

Place your gear out of reach at all times so that little cannot grab it!

Kevin, I did not get your email. I wish check the details (Image size etc) and let you know.

Marie, I owe you an email. It's on his way!

Tagged!

By the super talented Wynona.

But first a big THANK YOU all for the nice comments on my previous post. I'm flattered some of you may think of me being able to teach photography. But this is a long long shot. So no workshop, but if you have any questions, please ask on this blog and I will reply the best I can.

Now 8 things about me..Hmmmm, here goes:

1) I have moved 10 times by the time I was 18. I HATED it. I even did 3 schools (in 3 different cities) within one year....Just the thought of moving makes me freeze....

2) Ok no laughing here....I have had (I'm over it promise...well I think I am) a BIG crash on John Mc Enroe for quite a while. I knew just about everything about him. Not only he was the best tennis player to me, but I idealised him in every way. That was a LONG time ago...Ok I'm laughing writing this now...But it's true. You see I've always had a thing for the bad boys. Funnily enough I married the sweetest one... (I'm sure I've lost a lot of credit with a lot of people now).

3) I can cry buckets watching a movie or reading a book. It can be quite embarassing....lol..For DH..

4) Althouh my best subjects were always maths, physics and oher science stuff, I always secretely long to be good in some artistic kind of way. I saw my sister being a great fluitist, my other sister being so good at crats. That did frustrate me some.

5) I hate wearing socks. I think they are the most useless piece of clothing. I'd walk barefoot if I could. No socks in shoes either.

6) My kitchen needs to be spotless at all time. It's become quite an obsession actually. Quite laughable nd sad. lol.

7) I'm a perfectionist and really that makes my life quite tough at time. You know the "never god enough" eeling. I've gotten better but hard to shed off completely...

8) I hate the unknown, I'm not one for it at all..And sitting here at home now without work, not knowing what will happen is my biggest challenge so far. It is so much easier to know what will happen day after day...

9) Another obsession is looking for boys' clothes...To find the cool item that no one else is wearing...I can spend hours on internet to look for THE thing (tee, pants etc)...I just got some blundstones boots carried all the way from Melbourne by a ex colleague of mine. They are EUR95 here in the shop (available online only). And I got them for EUR43!!!! I know it's a weakness of mine but the whole country (heck the whole of Europe) is wearing H&M and I was tired of it!!!LOL. Please don't judge me too fast...lol   

On another note, the boys went back to school yesterday. In separate classes for the first time. 3 classes mixed together and they both knew one kid only. Quite tough I thought.. But they came home happy at 15:00. And were happy to go back today so no worries. They are already working hard on reading.

As for me, day 2 of being unemployed. I handed everything over yesterday and since it just feels so weird walking around without a mobile. I ordered a new PC (Dell) and upgraded to CS3 and finally worked on updating my website.

All of this between Manouk's 1001 wishes and desires. I had forgotten what it was to live with a 2.5 years old. Obviously we have been more lenient during the vacation and she is resisting going back under the "normal" regime...

THANKS again for stopping by and leaving a comment. I will try this week to fisnish my workhop last assignment: sun flare..Jut the idea and I'm petrified. Any sunflare I ever got so far was pure accident!!!!

Just a few more pictures from our trip...I'm on stand by to edit anymore as I have no computer...sigh...

   

Oh No!!!!

It's September 2 already and no post from me yet...

We came back safe and sound Friday afternoon, dropping 15 degrees on the way (centigrades people, we are in EU here). Not nice...I even put the heating on when we got home. We were freezing.

We had a wonderful time, absolutely wonderful. Not sure what it was but it just went so smoothly. I even read 4 books!!! Yes, 4, in 2 weeks. I love to read so that made me just happy. But I hardly manage to go through 3/4 a year these days. Here they are below: in English, French and finished my first Dutch book (somewhat that was a bit of a challenge but much quicker read, he he...Not understanding every single word, I can skip them..LOL). I even cried at the end of the French one, I'm such a romantic and this was a super romantic story but totally WRONG ending. I may write to the author. lol

Blink is such an interesting book. I had read about it on ILP and was curious about it and how it could relate to photography.

So yes, it went well. We did lots of visiting, lots of pool time, beach time. Kids behaved most of the time. Well as long as you meet their every needs and requests! They are getting through a phase of not recognising any rules or discipline anymore. Not sure what snapped or when. I sure hope it's a phase but being twins they have this bad habit of ganging up on us. They are still sweet and totally fun just not listening! LOL.

This is what I mean...LOL. They'll hate me for posting this!!! Don't worry I have other pictures of them where they look less maniac-ky!!!

The weather was perfect. The Portuguese are just such nice people, everywhere we went they'd just talk to the kids and loved touching their blond hair.

I took too many pictures, way too many. It will take me forever to proof. But it was so hard not too.

School starts tomorrow again. I have 2 firt graders. I can't believe it. Maxim is really looking fwd to it. Nathan is kind of scared he will finally have to work hard...Funny he worries about this, he's quite smart but.....kind of lazy too. Not sure he likes the "hard" part in the expression "work hard". I'm very curious to see how he will do this year. But he has always surprised us. We have always thought he would be the last of the 2 to do everything. But he was potty trained at 2, drove without side wheels at 4.5 and again, was the first - a month ago - to frop his floaties in the pool just to be able to say he was the best swimmer!... All this ahead of Maxim.

As for me, it is very weird thinking that tomorrow I'm not going back. For the first time this w/e I thought: what have I done?? Then again, I reminded myself of that photography business of mine that needs lots of work, and the feeling was gone. I am handing everything back tomorrow (from Blackberry to laptop via access card) and It really feels being stripped of my identity. As from tomorrow I'm a no-bo-dy..Ha!

So here are a few pictures, randomly selected of our 2 weeks in Portugal. More to follow later this week.